Connectionless obtainment of dynamic information over wireless transmission

ABSTRACT

An embodiment provides a method for transferring information from at least one instrument to an application, including: establishing a central protocol structure, wherein the central protocol structure defines a format for information transmitted utilizing the central protocol structure; receiving, at the application and over a wireless communication channel information from the at least one instrument, wherein the information is formatted in view of the central protocol structure; and performing, within the application, an action with respect to the information within the application, wherein the performing comprises deciphering the information contained in view of the central protocol structure.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 62/929,603, filed on Nov. 1, 2019, and entitled “CONNECTIONLESSOBTAINMENT OF DYNAMIC INFORMATION OVER WIRELESS TRANSMISSION,” thecontents of which are incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD

This application relates generally to obtaining information over awireless transmission, and, more particularly, to obtaining informationfrom devices through data formatted in view of a central protocolstructure over a wireless transmission, without establishing a directconnection.

BACKGROUND

Obtaining information from instruments or devices, for example,instruments or devices that provide measurement values is important. Theinformation may provide indications of parameters that are important tomonitor and track. For example, the instrument may be designed formeasuring water parameters (e.g., chlorine, pH, fluoride, turbidity,etc.) that are important indicators of water quality. As anotherexample, the instrument may be designed for detecting and measuringcontaminants or parameters that would indicate contaminants in a watersource, machine effluent, facility effluent, or the like. While theprimary examples used here throughout are focused on water quality orwater instruments, it should be understood that the described system andmethod can be applied to any instruments or devices that can obtain andtransmit information. For example, as another example, the instrument ordevice may be designed for measuring parameters of a system, where theparameters can be used to identify if the system is working properly ormay need cleaning or maintenance performed. In order to obtain theinformation from the instrument or other device, a person generally hasto make a connection to the instrument or device to pull the informationfrom the instrument or device.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In summary, one embodiment provides a method for transferringinformation from at least one instrument to an application, comprising:establishing a central protocol structure, wherein the central protocolstructure defines a format for information transmitted utilizing thecentral protocol structure; receiving, at the application and over awireless communication channel information from the at least oneinstrument, wherein the information is formatted in view of the centralprotocol structure; and performing, within the application, an actionwith respect to the information within the application, wherein theperforming comprises deciphering the information contained in view ofthe central protocol structure.

In another embodiment, a method for transferring information from atleast one device to an application includes establishing a centralprotocol structure, wherein the central protocol structure defines aformat for information transmitted utilizing the central protocolstructure; transmitting over a short-range wireless communicationchannel information from the at least one device to the application,wherein the information is formatted in a broadcast packet in view ofthe central protocol structure; receiving, at the application, and overa short-range wireless communication channel, information from the atleast one device; and performing, within the application, an action withrespect to the information within the application, wherein theperforming comprises deciphering the information contained in view ofthe central protocol structure.

Another embodiment provides an information handling device fortransferring information from at least one instrument to an application,comprising: a processor; and a memory device that stores instructionsexecutable by the processor to: establish a central protocol structure,wherein the central protocol structure defines a format for informationtransmitted utilizing the central protocol structure; receive, at theapplication and over a wireless communication channel information fromthe at least one instrument, wherein the information is formatted inview of the central protocol structure; and perform, within theapplication, an action with respect to the information within theapplication, wherein the performing comprises deciphering theinformation contained in view of the central protocol structure.

A further embodiment provides a product for transferring informationfrom at least one instrument to an application, comprising: a storagedevice that stores code, the code being executable by a processor andcomprising: code that establishes a central protocol structure, whereinthe central protocol structure defines a format for informationtransmitted utilizing the central protocol structure; code thatreceives, at the application and over a wireless communication channelinformation from the at least one instrument, wherein the information isformatted in view of the central protocol structure; and code thatperforms, within the application, an action with respect to theinformation within the application, wherein the performing comprisesdeciphering the information contained in view of the central protocolstructure.

The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications,generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled inthe art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is notintended to be in any way limiting.

For a better understanding of the embodiments, together with other andfurther features and advantages thereof, reference is made to thefollowing description, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appendedclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example flow diagram for obtaining informationfrom an instrument through a wireless transmission utilizing a centralprotocol structure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of computer circuitry.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It will be readily understood that the components of the embodiments, asgenerally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may bearranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations inaddition to the described example embodiments. Thus, the following moredetailed description of the example embodiments, as represented in thefigures, is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments, asclaimed, but is merely representative of example embodiments.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” (or the like) means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment is includedin at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in oneembodiment” or “in an embodiment” or the like in various placesthroughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics maybe combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In thefollowing description, numerous specific details are provided to give athorough understanding of embodiments. One skilled in the relevant artwill recognize, however, that the various embodiments can be practicedwithout one or more of the specific details, or with other methods,components, materials, et cetera. In other instances, well-knownstructures, materials, or operations are not shown or described indetail. The following description is intended only by way of example,and simply illustrates certain example embodiments.

Generally, each instrument or device is designed for measuring a singleor only a few parameters. The term instrument will be used herethroughout to increase readability, but it should be understood thatthis term is not intended to be limiting and can include any device thata user may want to receive information from. Thus, a facility orinstrument location may have many different instruments that are inproximity to one another, with each instrument designed for measuring aparticular parameter. The information from all of these instrumentstogether can provide an overall picture regarding the health oroperation of a system, water source, machine, facility, or the like.With all of these instruments in a single location, it can be difficultto determine what information from what instrument would be best for auser. For example, if the system is experiencing a problem, it may bedifficult for a user to determine what instrument is providinginformation that identifies the cause of the problem. Since conventionalsystems require that a user make a connection, or targeted interaction,with an instrument, the user may have to connect with every instrumentto obtain information that is useful to the user.

Additionally, making a connection, or targeted interaction, with theinstrument takes time and the user is unable to obtain information fromthe instrument without making this connection. Additionally, the numberof direct connections that can be made simultaneously is limited and,once a direct connection is made, other systems, devices, users, or thelike, are unable to connect to the instrument/device at the same time.Since there are generally many different instruments within a singleinstrument location, connecting to each of these instrumentsindividually can take a significant amount of time. Additionally, sincethe information cannot be obtained until a connection to the instrumentis made the user cannot determine beforehand whether a connection to theinstrument needs to be made at all. In other words, the user may connectto the instrument to collect or look at the information being providedby the instrument and determine that the information was not useful tothe user. However, this cannot be determined until the connection to theinstrument is made, thereby resulting in the user wasting time.Additionally, since the information is unknown unless a connection tothe instrument is active, the information that the user knows may becomequickly outdated. For example, if the user connects to an instrument andobtains the information from the instrument, disconnects from theinstrument, and the instrument performs an updated measurement, the userno longer has the most updated information.

Accordingly, an embodiment provides a system and method for obtaininginformation from an instrument through a wireless transmission utilizinga central protocol structure. The system establishes a central protocolstructure, also referred to as a wire protocol, which defines a formatfor information that is transmitted utilizing the central protocolstructure. The central protocol structure is known to both theinstruments/devices and a central device, for example, an applicationrunning on a mobile device, remote computer, over a network, or thelike. In other words, both the instruments/devices and central deviceknow the format for information transmitted utilizing the centralprotocol structure.

In one embodiment, as information is transmitted by the instrument overa wireless communication channel, such as a short-range or Bluetooth®channel, the information is contained within a broadcast packet, forexample, an advertising packet, that is formatted per the centralprotocol structure. An advertising packet can include both advertisingand scan response packets, both including advertising data orinformation. While the term advertising packet is used for ease ofreadability, any broadcast packet can be utilized and the system doesnot require the explicit use of an advertising packet. The broadcastpacket type that is used, is generally based upon the wirelesstransmission type.

As the application or central device receives the broadcast/advertisingpacket, the application can decipher the information utilizing theformat of the central protocol structure and then display, or otherwiseact upon, the information received by the instrument. Thus, the usernever has to make a direct connection to the instrument to obtain theinformation and, since the central protocol structure can be anencrypted protocol, the security of the information can be maintained.The user can then decide what instrument, if any, the user wants to makea direct connection to in order to obtain more detailed information.Additionally, since a direct connection is not required, the number ofdevices that the user can receive transmissions from is limitless andmultiple users and/or devices can receive the information at the sametime since the information is being broadcast. In an embodiment, theapplication receives information from a number of instruments, whereinthe number of instruments the application can receive information fromat a single time is greater than 10 instruments, 20 instruments, 50instruments, or 100 instruments. The application may be contained, or incommunication with, a device such as a cellular phone, tablet, or thelike, that allows a user to view data from the instruments.

The illustrated example embodiments will be best understood by referenceto the figures. The following description is intended only by way ofexample, and simply illustrates certain example embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 1 , an example system and method for obtaininginformation from an instrument through a wireless transmission utilizinga central protocol structure. At 101, a central protocol structure, alsoreferred to as a wire protocol, has been defined for the system. Thecentral protocol structure defines a format for information that istransmitted utilizing the central protocol structure. The wire protocolis established between both the instruments and a central device orapplication. In other words, the format defined by the central protocolstructure is known to any of the devices, systems, or applications thatwill be sending, receiving, or otherwise manipulating information thatis formatted per the central protocol structure. In order to maintainsecurity of information transmitted utilizing the central protocolstructure, the central protocol structure may include encryption. Inthis case, the central protocol structure identifies how informationwill be encrypted so that it can be decrypted by a system, device, orapplication that is also utilizing the central protocol structure, uponreceipt of the information.

The central protocol structure can be a known wire protocol, for examplea GOOGLE® protocol buffer, or may be specially defined or created for afacility, instrument set, application, or the like. Even if the wireprotocol is a known wire protocol, the user or system customizes thewire protocol to define what information is included in the wireprotocol, where the information within the wire protocol is included,and the like. In other words, a user or system must set up the wireprotocol for the use case. Therefore, while a standard wire protocol maydefine how many bytes can be included, how data packets are divided anddefined, and the like, the user or system must identify what informationeach of the data packets and/or bytes transmitted using the wireprotocol correspond to. For example, the user may define that the firstdata packet or byte transmitted using the wire protocol may correspondto the instrument identifier. Thus, when the data packet is received byanother instrument, central device, system, or application (collectivelyreferred to as “application” herein for ease of readability), thatapplication knows that the information included in that data packetcorresponds to the instrument identifier. Depending on the size of thedata packets, data packets may include more than one piece ofinformation. For example, the data packet may include both theinstrument identifier and timestamp information.

When the instrument has information to be transmitted or provided, theinstrument can format the information in view of the central protocolstructure or format the information per the format defined by thecentral protocol structure at 102. The instrument or transmitting devicecan then add the data, for example, encoded data, to advertising data at103. In other words, the transmitting device can place the informationwithin the broadcast packet at 103. The instrument can then broadcastthe advertising data within the broadcast packet at 104. Differentinformation can be placed within the advertising packet, for example,the information defined by the central protocol structure, in thelocation and format defined by the central protocol structure. Puttingthe information may include serializing the information into byte dataand inserting the information into the broadcast packets defined by thecommunication channel, for example, an advertising packet defined by theBluetooth® peripheral.

At 105, the receiving device may receive a broadcast packet, forexample, an advertising packet, from at least one transmitting device orinstrument. An advertising packet is effectively a broadcast packet thatcan be transmitted by a device with broadcasting capabilities. In otherwords, an advertising, or broadcast, packet can be transmitted by adevice regardless of whether another device is requesting the packet oreven within proximity to receive the packet. Thus, the application orsystem that is receiving the broadcast packet does not have to bedirectly connected to the instrument to receive the informationcontained within the broadcast packet, thereby, reducing the length oftime required to obtain the information.

Additionally, since the broadcasting occurs on a wireless communicationchannel, the information can be obtained by an application via thewireless communication channel without requiring a wired or directconnection to the instrument. The wireless communication channel mayinclude a near-field wireless communication channel, short-rangewireless communication channel, long-range wireless communicationchannel, or the like. For example, the wireless communication channelmay include Bluetooth® or other short-range communication channel, awireless network, or the like. The short-range wireless communicationchannel may use UHF radio waves, which may be in the range of between2.400 and 2.4835 GHz. Depending on the wireless communication channel,the receiving device having the application may have to be within apredetermined proximity of the instrument. For example, a user may becarrying a mobile device (such as a cellular phone or a tablet) thatincludes the application and, in the case that the wirelesscommunication channel is a Bluetooth® channel, the user may have to bewithin a short distance of the instrument(s). In one embodiment, thewireless communication channel is not a cellular, ethernet, or WiFinetwork.

The information included within the broadcast packet may include, but isnot limited to, instrument identifiers or other identificationinformation, measurement data obtained by the instrument, timestampinformation which may identify when the broadcast packet wascreated/transmitted or may identify when the measurement data wasobtained, parameters of the instruments or devices of the instrument(e.g., probes, sensors, meters, lamps, etc.), a combination thereof, orthe like. The instrument may be a configured to test a sample of water,either in a laboratory sample or in a continuous water flow, such as ina drinking water or wastewater treatment plant. Measurement data mayinclude any data that the instrument is designed to capture, forexample, pH values of a water source, turbidity values of a fluid, lampintensity output, specific indicator (e.g., chlorine, fluoride, iron,etc.) values, or any other measurement data. Parameters of theinstruments may include information identifying what is being measuredby the instrument, ranges or scales of the measurement data, measurementdata unit information, information identifying what is being measured byeach device of the instrument, and the like. In other words, the type ofinformation that may be included in the broadcast packet can be any typeof information and may vary across different instruments. In oneembodiment, the instrument does not include a user interface and theuser interacts with the device/instrument (such as receiving informationfrom the device/instrument) via the wireless connection between thedevice/instrument and the application.

Since the instrument creates the broadcast packet, the broadcast packetcan be dynamically updated as new information is produced by theinstrument, for example, a new measurement is taken. Thus, the broadcastpacket contains information that is substantially provided in real-time,with the only lag being the time to create the broadcast packet and atiming policy that indicates how frequently a broadcast packet should begenerated. The timing policy may be a default policy or may beprogrammed by a user and each instrument may have a different timingpolicy. The timing policy may indicate that an broadcast packet shouldbe generated and broadcast and a predetermined time interval (e.g.,every two seconds, every minute, etc.), upon receipt of a trigger event(e.g., new measurement data is obtained, upon detection of a receivingdevice in proximity to the instrument, etc.), a combination thereof, orthe like.

Additionally, since each device creates its own broadcast packet, thereis no limit to how many broadcast packets can be received by theapplication. In other words, using conventional systems that require adirect connection, the application is limited to how many devices it maybe connected to at a single time. Since the described system does notrequire a direct connection to receive the broadcast packets, and,therefore, the instrument information, there is no limit to the numberof device that the application can receive information from at a singletime. Additionally, since the information is contained within abroadcast packet, there is no limit to the number of devices orapplications that can receive the broadcast packet at a single time.

At 106, the system determines if the broadcast packet, and, therefore,the information, can be deciphered using the central protocol structure.This determination may include determining whether the broadcast packetis formatted per the format defined by the central protocol structure.If the broadcast packet cannot be deciphered using the central protocolstructure, the system may take no action at 108. If, on the other hand,the broadcast packet can be deciphered using the central protocolstructure, the system may decipher the information and perform an actionwith respect to the information at 107. Performing an action may includedeciphering the information based upon the format defined by the centralprotocol structure. Deciphering may include de-serializing theinformation. Additionally, if the information is encrypted per thecentral protocol structure, the deciphering may also include decryptingthe information utilizing the encryption protocol or algorithm definedby the central protocol structure.

Upon deciphering the broadcast packet, the information can be read bythe application so that it can be acted upon, for example, displayed(e.g., within a window of the application, on a display screenassociated with the application, etc.), stored, utilized to manipulateanother system (e.g., turn off another system, trigger an event onanother system, etc.), or the like. The application may be contained, orin communication with, a device such as a cellular phone, tablet, or thelike. It should be understood that any type of graphical user interfaceor application that has been created to display information can be used.Accordingly, the format of how the information is displayed may varybased upon the programming of the application. Since the broadcastpacket, and, therefore, information contained within the broadcastpacket, can be dynamically updated, the information acted upon can alsobe dynamically updated, for example, every time a broadcast packet isupdated. Additionally, in the event that the information is displayed,the displayed information can also be dynamically updated. Thus, theinformation displayed within the application can be updated asfrequently as the broadcast packet and may provide almost real-timeinstrument information.

The system may also take additional or alternative actions other thansimply displaying the information in the application. The system and/orapplication may use the information to perform some function or takesome action. For example, the system and/or application may store theinformation to be used in historical trending, continuous devicemonitoring, to be used by another system or device, or the like. Asanother example, the system and/or application may analyze theinformation and, based upon the analysis, perform an action in responseto the information. In other words, the system and/or application canmake a decision with regard to the instrument, device, or system basedupon the information. For example, based upon the information, thesystem and/or application may send a signal to turn on/off theinstrument or device or another instrument, device, or system, request anew measurement from the instrument or device, change a parameter on theinstrument or device or other instrument, device, or system, or thelike. As another example, the information may be used by the applicationto make a decision and trigger another event, such as activating ordeactivating another system or device.

The various embodiments described herein thus represent a technicalimprovement to conventional techniques for obtaining information frominstruments. Rather than having to connect to every instrument toreceive information, the described system and method provides atechnique that allows a user to obtain information from instrumentswithout making a connection to the instrument. Additionally, since adirect connection does not have to be made, the system can receiveinformation from multiple instruments at the same time without a limitto the number of instruments that information can be received from at asingle time. The lack of a direct connection also means that data from atransmitting device can be received and acted upon by multiple otherdevices. This allows a user, or multiple users simultaneously, todetermine what, if any, instrument or devices the user(s) may want tomake a direct connection to in order to get more detailed informationwithout having to directly connect to every instrument. Thus, thedescribed system provides a technique that is more efficient thanconventional techniques while still maintaining security of theinformation.

While various other circuits, circuitry or components may be utilized ininformation handling devices, with regard to an instrument for totalchlorine measurement in seawater according to any one of the variousembodiments described herein, an example is illustrated in FIG. 2 .Device circuitry 10′ may include a measurement system on a chip designfound, for example, a particular computing platform (e.g., mobilecomputing, desktop computing, etc.) Software and processor(s) arecombined in a single chip 11′. Processors comprise internal arithmeticunits, registers, cache memory, busses, I/O ports, etc., as is wellknown in the art. Internal busses and the like depend on differentvendors, but essentially all the peripheral devices (12′) may attach toa single chip 11′. The circuitry 10′ combines the processor, memorycontrol, and I/O controller hub all into a single chip 11′. Also,systems 10′ of this type do not typically use SATA or PCI or LPC. Commoninterfaces, for example, include SDIO and I2C.

There are power management chip(s) 13′, e.g., a battery management unit,BMU, which manage power as supplied, for example, via a rechargeablebattery 14′, which may be recharged by a connection to a power source(not shown). In at least one design, a single chip, such as 11′, is usedto supply BIOS like functionality and DRAM memory.

System 10′ typically includes one or more of a WWAN transceiver 15′ anda WLAN transceiver 16′ for connecting to various networks, such astelecommunications networks and wireless Internet devices, e.g., accesspoints. The system 10′ may also include transmission devices for apersonal area network 20′, for example, BLUETOOTH®. Additionally,devices 12′ are commonly included, e.g., a transmit and receive antenna,oscillators, PLLs, etc. System 10′ includes input/output devices 17′ fordata input and display/rendering (e.g., a computing location locatedaway from the single beam system that is easily accessible by a user).System 10′ also typically includes various memory devices, for exampleflash memory 18′ and SDRAM 19′.

It can be appreciated from the foregoing that electronic components ofone or more systems or devices may include, but are not limited to, atleast one processing unit, a memory, and a communication bus orcommunication means that couples various components including the memoryto the processing unit(s). A system or device may include or have accessto a variety of device readable media. System memory may include devicereadable storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memorysuch as read only memory (ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM). By wayof example, and not limitation, system memory may also include anoperating system, application programs, other program modules, andprogram data. The disclosed system may be used in an embodiment toperform total chlorine measurement of a sample of seawater.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, various aspects may beembodied as a system, method or device program product. Accordingly,aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment or anembodiment including software that may all generally be referred toherein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects maytake the form of a device program product embodied in one or more devicereadable medium(s) having device readable program code embodiedtherewith.

It should be noted that the various functions described herein may beimplemented using instructions stored on a device readable storagemedium such as a non-signal storage device, where the instructions areexecuted by a processor. In the context of this document, a storagedevice is not a signal and “non-transitory” includes all media exceptsignal media.

Program code for carrying out operations may be written in anycombination of one or more programming languages. The program code mayexecute entirely on a single device, partly on a single device, as astand-alone software package, partly on single device and partly onanother device, or entirely on the other device. In some cases, thedevices may be connected through any type of connection or network,including a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN),personal area connection (PAN), or the connection may be made throughother devices (for example, through the Internet using an InternetService Provider), through wireless transmissions, e.g., near-fieldcommunication, or through a hard wire connection, such as over a USBconnection.

Example embodiments are described herein with reference to the figures,which illustrate example methods, devices and products according tovarious example embodiments. It will be understood that the actions andfunctionality may be implemented at least in part by programinstructions. These program instructions may be provided to a processorof a device, e.g., a hand held measurement device, or other programmabledata processing device to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via a processor of the device, implement thefunctions/acts specified.

It is noted that the values provided herein are to be construed toinclude equivalent values as indicated by use of the term “about.” Theequivalent values will be evident to those having ordinary skill in theart, but at the least include values obtained by ordinary rounding ofthe last significant digit.

This disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration anddescription but is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art. The example embodiments were chosen and described in orderto explain principles and practical application, and to enable others ofordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for variousembodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particularuse contemplated.

Thus, although illustrative example embodiments have been describedherein with reference to the accompanying figures, it is to beunderstood that this description is not limiting and that various otherchanges and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in theart without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for transferring information from at least one instrument to an application running on a central device, comprising: setting up a central protocol structure, wherein the establishing comprises creating a unique central protocol structure, wherein the central protocol structure is unique for a system comprising the at least one instrument and the application and is customized for a transfer of information between the at least one instrument to the application, wherein the creating comprises defining a format for information transmitted utilizing the central protocol structure, wherein the defined format identifies what information is transmitted in each data packet of the central protocol structure and a location of each data packet within the central protocol structure; receiving, at the application, and over a short-range wireless communication channel, information from the at least one instrument, wherein the information is contained within a broadcast packet and formatted, by the at least one instrument, per the central protocol structure, wherein the broadcast packet is broadcast regardless of whether the application received the broadcast packet; and performing, within the application, an action with respect to the information within the application, wherein the performing comprises deciphering, at the application, the information contained within the broadcast packet utilizing the format of the central protocol structure.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the short-range wireless communication channel uses UHF radio waves.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication channel comprises a short-range communication channel and the broadcast packet comprises an advertising packet.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information is dynamically updated as the at least one instrument changes data.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the performing an action comprises displaying the information and wherein the information displayed within the application is dynamically updated as the information is dynamically updated.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the application receives the information without connecting to the at least one instrument.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the formatting the information comprises serializing the information into byte data per the format defined by the central protocol structure.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the deciphering comprises de-serializing the information per the format defined by the central protocol structure.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the central protocol structure comprises an encrypted protocol buffer that encrypts information transmitted utilizing the central protocol structure; and wherein the performing comprises decrypting the information.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the application receives information from a number of instruments, wherein the number of instruments the application can receive information from at a single time is greater than 20 instruments.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises at least one of: an instrument identifier, measurement data obtained by the instrument, timestamp information, and a parameter of the instrument.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the defining comprises utilizing a known wire protocol and customizing the known wire protocol for the system.
 13. An information handling device for transferring information from at least one instrument to an application running on a central device, comprising: a processor; and a memory device that stores instructions executable by the processor to: set up a central protocol structure, wherein the establishing comprises creating a unique central protocol structure, wherein the central protocol structure is unique for a system comprising the at least one instrument and the application and is customized for a transfer of information between the at least one instrument to the application, wherein the creating comprises defining format for information transmitted utilizing the central protocol structure, wherein the defined format identifies what information is transmitted in each data packet of the central protocol structure and a location of each data packet within the central protocol structure; receive, at the application and over a short-range wireless communication channel information from the at least one instrument, wherein the information is contained within a broadcast packet and formatted, by the at least one instrument, per the central protocol structure, wherein the broadcast packet is broadcast regardless of whether the application received the broadcast packet; and perform, within the application, an action with respect to the information within the application, wherein the performing comprises deciphering, at the application, the information contained within the broadcast packet utilizing the format of the central protocol structure.
 14. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the information is dynamically updated as the at least one instrument changes data.
 15. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the performing an action comprises displaying the information and wherein the information displayed within the application is dynamically updated as the information is dynamically updated.
 16. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the application receives the information without connecting to the at least one instrument.
 17. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the formatting the information comprises serializing the information into byte data per the format defined by the central protocol structure.
 18. The information handling device of claim 17, wherein the deciphering comprises de-serializing the information per the format defined by the central protocol structure.
 19. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the central protocol structure comprises an encrypted protocol buffer that encrypts information transmitted utilizing the central protocol structure; and wherein the performing comprises decrypting the information.
 20. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the wireless communication channel comprises a short-range communication channel and the broadcast packet comprises an advertising packet.
 21. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the instrument is configured for testing a quality of a sample of water.
 22. A product for transferring information from at least one instrument to an application, comprising: a storage device that stores code, the code being executable by a processor and comprising: code that sets up a central protocol structure, wherein the establishing comprises creating a unique central protocol structure, wherein the central protocol structure is unique for a system comprising the at least one instrument and the application and is customized for a transfer of information between the at least one instrument to the application, wherein the creating comprises defining a format for information transmitted utilizing the central protocol structure, wherein the defined format identifies what information is transmitted in each data packet of the central protocol structure and a location of each data packet within the central protocol structure; code that receives, at the application and over a wireless communication channel information from the at least one instrument, wherein the information is contained within a broadcast packet and formatted, by the at least one instrument, per the central protocol structure, wherein the broadcast packet is broadcast regardless of whether the application received the broadcast packet; and code that performs, within the application, an action with respect to the information within the application, wherein the performing comprises deciphering, at the application, the information contained within the broadcast packet utilizing the format of the central protocol structure. 